Antisense and other oligonucleotide therapies have gone beyond academic publications to the level of approved drug as shown by the recent FDA approval of an antisense oligonucleotide therapeutic for ocular cytomegalovirus infections. More and more oligonucleotides are entering the clinic for the treatment of a variety of diseases such as inflammation, cancer, viral disease and others. There is an urgent need for improved methods for the synthesis of oligonucleotides in high quantity and with high quality. Solid phase chemistry is the present method of choice. Typical synthons now used are O-cyanoethyl protected nucleoside phosphoamidite monomers. At the end of the synthesis, the oligonucleotide product is treated typically with 30% aqueous ammonium hydroxide to deprotect the cyanoethyl groups on the phosphorothioate backbone as well as exocyclic amino groups. During this deprotection step, one molecule of acrylonitrile is produced for every cyanoethyl group present.
It is now known that acrylonitrile is a rodent carcinogen and that, at pH 7, it can react with T, dC, dG, dA and dI, resulting in the formation of a variety of adducts. See, Solomon et al., Chem.-Biol. Interactions, 51, 167-190 (1984). it is greatly desired to eliminate these impurities in synthesis of oligonucleotides, especially phosphorothioate oligonucleotides.
Eritja et al. (Tetrahedron, 48, 4171-4182 (1992)) report the prevention of acrylonitrile adduct formation of nucleobase moieties during deprotection of β-cyanoethyl protected oligomers by 40% triethylamine in pyridine for 3 hours followed by treatment with 0.5 M DBU/pyridine. However, as will be seen infra, their conditions failed to eliminate adduct formation to a suitable extent.
Given the demand for oligonucleotides and analogs thereof for clinical use, and the known toxicity of acrylonitrile nucleobase adducts, methods of preparing phosphate linked oligomers having reduced amount of such adducts are greatly desired. The present invention is directed to this, as well a other, important ends.